FIELDS OF DREAMS: Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois

Wrigley Field is home to the Chicago Cubs of the National League. It is the second oldest major league baseball stadium still in use, only Fenway Park in Boston is older. They won back-to-back World Series championships in 1907 and 1908. It’s now been 105 years since they did it. Chicago is known as the hard-luck team, probably best personified by the vilification of Steve Bartman , a fan who caught what could have been the second out ball in the 8th inning of game 6 of the 1998 league championships. They were winning over the Florida Marlins, who quickly rebounded to win the game and the series.

It’s been like that for Cubs fans.

Big names who have called The Friendly Confines home over the years include Ernie Banks, Ryne Sandberg, Joe Tinkers, Johnny Evers, Frank Chance (Tinker to Evers to Chance), Rogers Horsnby, Dizzy Dean, and Sammy Sosa. Legendary broadcaster Harry Caray also called the press box home.

If you’re a baseball fan in Chicago and root for the Cubs, you’re a Northsider. Southsiders follow the White Sox. Currently, the team is ahead of only the Houston Astros in the National League Central Division.

Here are the stats…

Year opened: 1914
Surface: Grass
Construction cost: $250,000
Capacity: 42,157
Field dimensions: Left field – 355 ft.; left center – 368 ft.; Center field – 400 ft.; right center – 368 ft.; Right field – 353 ft.
Home teams: Chicago Whales(Federal League) 1914-1915; Chicago Cubs (National League, MLB) 1916 –present; Chicago Tigers (APFA –football) 1920; Chicago Bears (NFL) 1921 – 1970
Events attended: one game

Wrigleyville is a lively, kind of middle to upper class neighborhood just north of downtown Chicago. It’s got a great vibe with restaurants, bars, and such. Just seems like a nice place to hang out. In the middle is Wrigley Field, named after chewing gum magnate and former team owner, William Wrigley, Jr.

I’m kind of amazed that the capacity is so high, it seems so much more intimate with only two decks and a bit of bleacher area in the outfield. I would have guessed 36-38,000, not 42,000.

Since it’s such an old stadium, there are plenty of obstructed views…your ticket will note it if it is. Old stadiums are nice in a historical, museum kind of way…especially when it still used as it was intended. However, historical places like this can leave a lot to be desired for disabled customers.

Wheelchair seating is sparce but it didn’t seem hard to get. Wrigley has no written companion seat restriction policy…we had no problem getting 4 companion seats. The way the accessible seating here is done is that a couple of regular seats have been removed here and there from the top row of the lower deck and a wheelchair goes in instead. There is also one area right behind home plate that is served by one of those lifts that are attached to the staircase railing. Not too bad for an antique like this. Tickets are now priced dynamically and range from $20 for upper deck reserved against cellar dwellers to  over $300 for club seats against the premiere teams like the Cards. You are paying a bit of a premium for seeing such a popular and historic park…there is also a 12% entertainment tax on top of that.

Transit is excellent with an accessible El station right next to the stadium.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia

Kathy (kthypryn) under CC-BY license

Wrigley is also know for the apartment buildings across the street that set up bleachers on the roof to watch the games.  After some years of contention, the stadium has agreements from some of the owners to share in the ticket prices that they charge.  Some of them are also wheelchair accessible, see the sites for the team endorsed rooftops here (check the amenities and FAQs to see which are accessible).

Food is pretty much standard ballpark fare but they also have Italian beef sandwiches available.

Unfortunately, I can’t comment too much on the beer selection because we didn’t have any and all the snack bars, save for one, in our area were closed. The one that was open was serving Pabst Blue Ribbon.

The coffee wasn’t bad, though…

The one thing you do not want to do is come here on a cold day. We did. 26 degrees with a wind chill of 16 degrees. That and the fact that there is no cold like Chicago cold made for a challenging day at the ball park at best.

It had snowed the day before (this was around April 20th). The pitcher could only throw meatballs and, even though Sammy Sosa hit one out, the Cubs ended up losing. In a post game interview, the pitcher said he couldn’t feel his fingers anymore. We bought furry Cubs blankets from the gift shop and huddled together. It wasn’t enough…we left in the bottom of the 4th to retire in front of the heater in our hotel room.

Of course, this experience cannot be typical. I feel like I really didn’t get the full effect from Wrigley so I’m not going to hold the bad weather against it. I’d really like to go back someday in the summer to really experience it.

I am, however, ready to put it slightly ahead of Fenway because the accessible seats are better, as is the accessible transit. Neither of them would rise to the level of old Yankee stadium…which I know is nowhere near as historic but did have a very historic feel to it…but even with their accessibility challenges, I hope they never get rid of these absolutely gorgeous old ball parks. That puts Wrigley at number 4 on our list.

Every baseball fan, disabled or not, should visit Wrigley sometime in their life.

-Darryl
Copyright 2010 – Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved
Updated 2013

The Grand Tour - St. Croix, Part 6

As our clothes spin in the dryer in the beach side laundry room, we’re waiting in the lobby with a half-dozen other guests. Elizabeth Armstrong, the owner of the Buccaneer Hotel, is regaling us with the history of the island and the hotel itself.

The earliest known existence of man dates back two and a half millennia. Groups of natives gradually emigrated up the island chain from South America, becoming the Caribs. Of course, you can see where the region got its name.

More recently, Spanish, French, and Dutch traders opened huge sugar plantations here  run on the backs of slaves. Eventually, the slaves were emancipated but the Dutch governors bankrupted the island with their lavish ways.

The United States, looking for a strategic location during World War I to protect its Panama Canal interests, took it off the Dutch’s hands for $25 million dollars. Now a self-governed territory, and administered by the Department of the Interior, St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John, and many other small islands are still part of the USA under the name U.S. Virgin Islands.

Ms. Armstrong leads us on a short walk over to the old sugar mill where we had Happy Hour last night.

She points out several birds and plants of the island around the area. This old stone structure was a cistern for the old mill.

Inside the mill itself, we’re told of the fruit bats that like to live here.

Finally, we get to inspect the fruit of the calabash tree, which is used for making maracas.

I had told my wife that I’d treat her to a massage at the hotel’s spa. Instead, she asks, can she use the money to buy a bracelet she saw in Christiansted?

Off into town we go where we park at the Fort Christianvern National Monument (great place to find free parking downtown, by the way).  Sonya jewelers is nearby, where my wife finds her souvenir.

Afterward, we head over to our new favorite island hangout, Fort Christian Brewpub. It’s Thursday and today0’s special is $10 pitchers and 10 wings for $7.

We get the bargain basement specials and I get an idea.

The water is very clear in the harbor, clearer that the beach at the hotel where I did a little snorkeling but it was a bit murky. I’ve got an underwater camera but, so far, it isn’t doing me too much good but there is a ton of fish right off the dock here in clear water.

I ask the bartender if I can borrow a broomstick. He finds one, I clamp the camera on it, lower it in the water while Letty feeds the hungry tarpon our leftover chicken bones.

Watch The Video!

Watch the video above for the results and to acquaint yourself with the soon-to-be-famous chicken bone eating tarpon of St. Croix. Just as fun but less smelly than the world famous beer drinking pigs up in the jungle.

We’ll wrap up our time in St. Croix in our next report.

Darryl

Copyright 2013 – Darryl Musick

All Rights Reserved

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Mid Priced Reposado Tequila Taste Off

In this corner, from the distillery of Tequila Sauza is Hornitos Reposado. Going stateside for around $25 for a 750 mil. bottle, it's one of the biggest selling, mid priced premium tequilas.

The contender is from the Cuervo empire, Gran Centenario. Also going for around $25 a bottle, it comes in a classic, ribbed bottle.

Watch the Video!

Both are nice, smooth reposados aged in new oak barrels. Both are better than other popular reposados such as Familia Camarena and Cazadores but not as good as, say, Asombroso or Clase Azul.


Only one can be a winner, though. Watch the short video above as Tim joins me again on another taste off where we pick our winner of the mid-priced reposados.

Cheers!


-Darryl

"You Beer Swilling Pig!"...and Other Island Stories: St. Croix, Part 5

Previously on The World on Wheels:
St. Croix - Part 1
St. Croix - Part 2
St. Croix - Part 3
St. Croix - Part 4

History, swine, and hospitality are on today’s agenda in St. Croix.

Even though we put on copious amounts of sunscreen yesterday, we’re still a bit past done on our tans. Feeling the effects of our burns, plus the beginning of the itching from last night’s bug bites (the hotel puts a couple of cans of bug repellent in each room – use it), we commiserate over another bountiful breakfast before heading out for the day’s exploration.

While the eastern end of the island (where we’re staying) is dry and not real lush, the trade winds drop much more precipitation on the west end. There’s a rain forest there we want to go to.

Yesterday, Letty tried to navigate via maps into the mountains of the west end and after much turning and twisting through the back roads, we suddenly found ourselves back where we started at the Sion Farms shopping center.

Watch the Video!

Before leaving, I visit the concierge and get written directions. They’re more like “make a right after two stop lights, turn left at the police station, turn right at Golden Rock Shopping Center…” With the poorly signed roads on the island, these directions work better than the map.

Today, we make it. After driving along the north coast beach called Cane Bay, we make a left onto a rather infamous, steep, potholed, and twisty road.

On the first weekend in May, an Ironman triathlon is held on the island. It is called the “Beauty and the Beast” because of the unbelievable scenery the racers go through. Oh yeah, on the bikes they hit the “beast,” the road we’re on now.

It’s hard enough in a car. It looks impossible to pedal up on a bike.

A little tricky with the directions but soon we see Carambola Bay Country Club, another crucial landmark in the concierge’s directions. After that, we see a sign to the rainforest and we’re in thick jungle. Tall trees dangle long vines into the roadway. It’s a very different world from the other end of the island.

A couple of sharp turns and we’re at St. Croix’s most famous jungle bar, the Mount Pellier Domino Club.

At the bamboo bar, we sip on frozen banana daiquiris while the two bartenders sing along to Billy Idol. Finishing our sweet, cold concoctions, we get to the business at hand.

Buying a couple of cans of non-alcoholic beer, we’re escorted out back to a well hidden ramp extending to a giant green box in the jungle. The bartender opens the door where we end up on a small concrete patio with four pens.

Suddenly, a giant boar pops up, mouth wide, snorting hungrily. We’ve found the famous beer drinking pigs of St. Croix.

Yeah, it’s a tourist trap of the highest magnitude but at least it’s cheap. It’s a buck a head to get in and two bucks per beer and you get to go into the rather fragrant compound to stick a can of beer in a pig’s mouth, watch him crack it open, down it, and spit out the can.

One of the more unique attractions on the island.

Making our way down the Beast, back to Cane Bay, we saw an ice cream stand on the beach. Tim’s had a hankering for some for a couple of days now and we promised him we’d stop on the way down.

After manhandling him out of the car, into his chair, and wrestling it across the sand to the tables under the tent, I go up to the bar (yeah, even the ice cream stands have full bars here) to order the ice cream for him.

“We don’t have ice cream.”

“But your sign says you do…you even have a big picture of an ice cream cone on it.”

“I know but we don’t have any…I could make you a chocolate milkshake instead.”

So, we went with the shake while Letty and I took turns looking at sea life in the coral next to shore.

Nearby, scuba divers were swimming in from their adventure. Just off shore is the famous “Wall.” Shallow water, wading depth, extends about a hundred yards offshore until it suddenly drops over a sheer thousand feet. Divers love to explore this underwater cliff.

We spend a little more time relaxing on Cane Bay beach before packing back up and continuing on.

Before getting back into Christiansted, we make a quick left turn at an unmarked road next to the Salt River Marina. It took us a few tries to find this road but we finally found it.

About a half mile in, we find what we’re looking for, Columbus Landing Beach. The name says it all, this is the beach that the explorer landed on in 1493…520 years ago.

If you stand at just the right location, you won’t see the houses or civilization behind you.

At that point, it looks much as it did over half a millennium ago.  Just don’t look down at the litter by your feet.

The concierge had found a boat captain who was willing to take us out to Buck Island for a dive adventure. She arranged for us to meet him on the dock at Christiansted on our way back when he came back into port after the day’s tour.

After having a beer at Fort Christian Brewpub and watching the seaplanes take off out of the harbor, our boat comes in. We meet Captain Mike, and he is willing to take us, but the steep, slippery, and long landing ladder we’d have to negotiate on the island is just beyond our capacities and Tim’s disability.

Sadly, a boat dive trip will not be on this week’s agenda.

Back at the Buccaneer Hotel, we make it just in time for the weekly manager’s reception. It’s a happy hour where guests mingle, sip rum punch or wine, and listen to the steel drum musician.

The hotel owner, Elizabeth Armstrong, shows up to introduce herself to each guest and see how their stay is going. Ms. Armstrong meets us, chats, and finds out we couldn’t do the boat trip but invites us to walk with her tomorrow for an accessible walking tour pointing out the historic sites, flora, and fauna of the expansive hotel grounds.

As the giant Moku Jumbie dancers wobble their way around the guests, we decide to take her up on it.

A tall dancer high-fives Tim, straddles over a line of guests, as we wind down another day in the Virgin Islands.

We’ll be back to continue this adventure after a night’s rest. See you then…

Darryl

Copyright 2013 – Darryl Musick

All Rights Reserved

FIELDS OF DREAMS: Fenway Park, Boston, Massachussetts

Five days after the Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic, Fenway Park opened up just south of downtown Boston.  100 years later (as of this week), with a few modifications, the park is still going strong.  It’s the oldest stadium in Major League baseball.

Think of all the history this place has seen.  Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Carlton Fisk willing his shot to stay fair, the ball rolling through Bill Buckner’s legs, the curse of the Bambino and the 86 year World Series drought, Carl Yastrzemski, Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling’s bloody sock, and finally…two world championships in the 2000’s.

The current lineup includes such names as David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Jacob Ellsbury, and Mike Napoli. The team just couldn't function under manager Bobby Valentine last year so new skipper, John Farrell is guiding the team in 2013.   Maybe there's something there because, as of this writing, they're tied for first place with their biggest rival, the Yankees.  The team also has the record for the most consecutive sell outs, not a hard feat with such a small stadium and a powerhouse team. 

Here are the stats:
Year opened: 1912
Surface: Grass
Construction cost: $650,000
Capacity: 37,402 for night games, 36,974 for day games
Field dimensions: Left field – 310 ft.; left center – 379 ft.; Center field – 389 ft.; right center – 420 ft.; Right field – 302 ft.
Home team: Red Sox (American League-MLB) 1912 - present

Fenway is quirky.  It’s old.  It looks and feels old.  The first time I stepped foot into the park, I saw the rust, the grime, the pallets of beer kegs, the trucks…and I thought I was in the loading dock.  Nope, this is the concourse where you’d go to get food and beer during the game.

It’s most famous feature is the giant wall in left field that is 37 feet tall called the Green Monster.  There’s a street on the other side and the wall keeps the stadium into its lot.  A ladder and a garage door are on the outfield wall.  Both are in play and can make the ball bounce in crazy directions.  The right field foul pole is only 302 feet out.  Weak hitting second baseman Johnny Pesky figured out how to hook a ball just right to get around this pole earning it the name of Pesky’s Pole.

The scoreboard in left field is manually operated.  Not from nostalgia but because it’s just that old.

We have been to the park two times.  The first was on the day that the hated New York Yankees eliminated the Sox from the playoffs in 1999.  We struck up a conversation with groundskeeper Al Forrester, who was sitting in a chair outside.   When he learned we were from Los Angeles, he asked “do you have a camera?”  Yes we did.  “Go on in,” he said.  We did and wandered around the empty stadium to our heart’s content.

Several years later, we came back and took a formal tour because the games that week were sold out.  This time, we got to walk along the warning track, see inside the dugouts and scoreboard, and see the private club behind home plate.

It’s the most time we’ve spent inside a stadium without seeing a game.  With that in mind, here are our impressions of the park.

The Other Side of the Green Monster

On game day, it’s festive outside the park with food booths, souvenir shops, restaurants, and bars.  If you can’t get into the game, watch it at one of the local watering holes across the street.    Even on non-game days, there is still quite a bit of activity in the area around the stadium.  It’s a fun place anytime.

The seats are a bit small.  There are newer seats located on top of the Green Monster and on top of the right field roof.  Wheelchair accessible locations are available throughout the park, although the accessible seats at the top of the Green Monster were built with huge obstructions.  Their website says they’ve been re-designed, I have not seen them since they were.

Tickets a pretty darn expensive and hard to come by at the perennially sold out park.  Disabled fans can call (877) RED-SOX9.  Prices run from $22 to well over $300. 

I have no idea how the food here is but in addition to the usual fare lobster rolls, Italian sandwiches, pulled pork, and our favorite East Coast treat…fried dough…is available here.

Transit for able-bodied fans is great.  The Kenmore Station…the closest one to the stadium…is marked as accessible on the MBTA’s map but on the station list says “no accessible features.”  We had to disembark at another station a mile away and walk the remaining distance.  Also note that this area is served by the Green Line, Boston’s oldest transit line and the most accessibility challenged one.  Maybe they’ve added accessibility to the Kenmore station since we were there, but their website is contradictory on it.

Very limited parking is available near the stadium.

I’d love to see a game here someday, just to see one in the oldest stadium.  Be aware that there may be accessibility issues when you go here and prepare for them.

-Darryl
Copyright 2010 – Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved
Updated for 2013

Far Flung Points, Posers, and All the Beaches Inbetween - St. Croix, Part 4

“I have a challenge for you,” I tell the concierge. “We’d like to take a snorkel trip to Buck Island but we haven’t been able to find a boat willing to take the wheelchair.”

“Challenge accepted,” she tells us.

While she goes off to find that tour, we’re off to find the sunrise.  No, we’re not actually getting up at the crack of dawn, we’re just driving to the end of the island.

Watch The Video!

Point Udall is the eastern end of the island.  It’s also the eastern-most point of the United States.

It’s still hard to wrap our heads around that this is still our country…part of the good ‘ole U.S. of A…but it is. This barren little rock outcropping is the first soil in our country to feel the sun’s rays.

A monument put up at the millennium alludes to this fact.

I peer over the side to see the extreme end of the point. The rocky outcropping is constantly pounded by waves.

There’s even a little waterspout when the waves hit it just right.

Now, let’s go find the island’s most famous industry, the rum.

St. Croix has been making fine Caribbean rum for over 300 years. Cruzan is their brand and is found as the well liquor in just about every bar on the island. The distillery offers tours but it is full of stair climbing and is not hospitable to wheechairs.

We’d like to take a tour but this just doesn’t sound like much fun for Tim. Luckily, there is now another option.

Recently, Captain Morgan rums relocating their distillery from nearby Puerto Rico to a new plant near the airport. It’s new, this is the United States…home of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it should be accessible…right?

We pull into the handicapped spot in front of the new visitor’s center. Inside, we’re told that the tram used for the tour is not wheelchair accessible and that there is also one part of the tour where visitors get off the tram and walk a little bit.

I ask if I can transfer Tim into the tram and if he can stay on it during the walking part. The answer is yes to both so we sign up for the tour (no pictures allowed during the factory part).

We roll Tim out to the tram, which looks like the kind Universal Studios uses for their backlot tours. We’re escorted to the side where one tour guide notices the seat behind the driver folds up.

“If you can lift both him and the wheelchair, you can put him there,” she says.

No, I can’t lift both but I can transfer him into the seat onboard.

Then the other tour guide notices a slot under the floor of the tram.

“What’s this?” she asks and pulls on a strap there. Low and behold, a ramp slides out. In operation for a year, no one had noticed there was a wheelchair ramp built into the side of the tram.

They pull it out, I wheel Tim onboard, and beg to take a picture.

“But you don’t understand, a lot of wheelchair users follow our travels and would be thrilled to know your tour is accessible,” I plead.

After a few minutes, I’m finally given permission to take one, really quick picture. It turns out Tim is the very first wheelchair visitor they’ve ever had and I am happy to report that the Captain Morgan distillery tour in St. Croix is now fully wheelchair accessible…even the walking part halfway through.

After the tour, we watch a very entertaining film about the brand and learn how to do the “pose” while sipping samples of their dozen or so rums in the bar.

During this little “happy hour,” we also get to have two cocktails of our choice mixed with one of their brands, of course. We spend another hour in the gift shop looking for souvenirs and rum. It is a very inexpensive place to buy it. Before I left home, I saw Captain Morgan Spiced Rum for sale at Costco for $34.99. Here? It’s $9…no tax, either (U.S. citizens can take up to 6 liters of liquor home duty-free, as long as at least one bottle is made on the island).

We take a dozen bottles home.

Back at the Buccaneer, we change into our swim trunks and head to the beach. There are three beaches here but most people only go to two. Mermaid Beach and Grotto Beach. We go to Grotto because they also have a swimming pool there.

The road is long and the hill steep enough that you don’t want to walk down to the beach from the great house, especially with a wheelchair. The hotel runs shuttles up and down the hill all day long but we opt to drive in the rental car. That way we can set our own schedule and throw a six pack of beer in the back to supply us on the beach.

Not quite accessible, it takes two steps to get to poolside here but I’m able to back Tim down them pretty easily. We blow up an inner tube and Letty and I get him into the pool without a problem. Tim takes a couple of hours to float around the pool while Letty and I tag team to stay with him there while the other goes swimming in the adjacent ocean.

I get a diving mask, snorkel, and fins from the beach shack and head to the coral reef just offshore. It’s a bit murky since there was a storm a couple of days ago, with lots of little bits of seaweed floating around. Not really great and not really worth the great effort it would take to get Tim in the water.

Still, I was able to get a little video of it, which you can watch in the embedded video, above.

As the day comes to an end at Grotto Beach, we go back up the hill to make homemade rum punches, sit on the terrace and listen to the sounds of the house band playing on the beach and wafting up to our room on the sunset breeze.

Darryl

Copyright 2013 – Darryl Musick

All Rights Reserved

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: A Drinking Tour of St. Croix

On location in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, join us for a drinking tour of the island.

In the video below, we visit one of the island's legendary rum distilleries.

Watch the Video!

While Cruzan is the traditional St. Croix rum, it's facilities are old and inaccessible to wheelchairs. Fortunately, Captain Morgan rums relocated here a year ago and their brand new, state-of-the-art distillery is.

We also turn into a bunch of posers as we learn the official Captain Morgan pose.

Next, it's on to frozen banana daiquiris at the Mt. Pellier Domino Club, more famous for the residents that make beer-swilling pigs of themselves but the drinks are still cool and refreshing at the bamboo bar in the middle of the jungle.

We make sure we get all the free booze we can get at the hotel by going to the weekly happy hour, the wine tasting, and the rum tasting (there's Cruzan!).

We almost lived at the beautiful waterfront Fort Christian Brewpub where, in addition to the great beer, we meet the chicken wing eating tarpon of St. Croix.

It's all in the video above, come along...

Cheers!

Darryl

Crashes, Feeding Frenzies, Disappointments, and Triumphs: St. Croix, Part 3

Need to catch up? Click on the following links for Part 1 and Part 2 of this trip.

We’re here, we’re squared away as far as access goes…why don’t we start enjoying St. Croix?

The Buccaneer is an historic, family run hotel sitting on over 300 acres just east of the town of Christiansted. It’s a rambling affair with a great house on the hilltop overlooking three beaches and a golf course. All guests receive a complimentary, full breakfast buffet with an option of omelets or eggs cooked to order.

Watch the Video!

Since we’re trying to do this on a budget, the plan is to eat a big breakfast to last us most of the day so we can skip lunch and save a little money on this expensive island.

Heaping piles of creamy scrambled eggs, grits, bacon, and sausage sit on our plates followed by a bowl of fresh pineapple chunks, oranges, grapes, and bananas. Steamy coffee wakes us up and a variety of juices gives us a filling and healthy way to start the day. All this fresh and delicious food is attended to some of the friendliest staff you’ll meet.

Looking to the west, we can see the harbor at Christiansted. It’ll be quiet on this Sunday morning so we’ll go over and have a look around after tipping our waiter.

It’s a two mile, fairly hair raising drive over to the town. Driving in the Virgin Islands is unique. Yes, you’re still in the United States but it’s a bit different here. For one thing, you drive on the left. I’ve done this in Ireland and really had no problem adjusting but there’s another curve these islands throw at you…you’re driving American style cars…which mean the driver sits on the left and drives on the left, not right-hand drive like you’d see in the UK or Ireland.

It is quite disconcerting and takes a bit of getting used to. To start off, the narrow little driveway of the hotel is a roundabout with a fountain in it. I’m watching on the right to make sure I have room when I suddenly hear the awful sound of metal scraping concrete. I’ve just put a large, crescent shaped dent in the driver’s door by rubbing up against the fountain.

We manage to extract ourselves, curse a bit, and hope that American Express will really cover the damage. With that behind us, we continue on to town without incident.

Downtown Christiansted is a warren of tiny little narrow one-way streets. Parking is scarce but we do find two handicapped spots open two short blocks from the waterfront. Luckily, we remembered to bring a parking placard with us.

Walking down to the boardwalk is an adventure in accessibility…roll down the sidewalk a bit, cross over mid block where there’s a ramp to cross over, get halfway down the next block and finish by rolling iin the street until we hit water.

A dive shop offering snorkeling tours to Buck Island, just offshore, is open. On the web, they say they accommodate disabled tourists so we stop in and ask.

“Can he walk down stairs?” we’re asked.

“No.”

“Well you need to be able to walk up stairs into the boat and off of the boat when we get to the island for snorkeling.”

“But on the Internet it says you take disabled people out for snorkeling…you even have a picture of a guy in a wheelchair on the boat.”

“We do, but they have to be able to walk up and down stairs.”

“They don’t sound too disabled to me,” I finish up with and leave.

We’ll see if we can do some shore diving at the hotel and task the concierge into finding us a trip we can take. In the meantime, next door is Rum Runners, a waterfront bar, with very large fish swimming in the water under the dock.

“They’re tarpon,” someone says.

We strike a long conversation with a local lady just enjoying the dock while surfing on her iPhone.

“They’re not good eating so we leave them alone. Sometimes people will catch them, cut them up, and use for bait.”

We learn something new each day.

A short stroll to the other end of the boardwalk brings us to Fort Christian National Historic Park. Since Tim has a Golden Access Pass, we don’t have to pay the $3 admission into the fort. Doesn’t really matter since only the area inside the gate is accessible. The volunteer on duty tells us they can’t put a ramp inot the fort because of the historical nature.

I politely suggest that she should pass the word along that non-permanent ramps and lifts have been used at national historic sites like the White House and Fort Sumpter, maybe they could look into it?

While Tim takes a look at the binder full of pictures and descriptions, Letty and I go into the fort to explore and take pictures.

Under a half-staff flag (we were there just days after the Boston Marathon bombing) sits a row of cannon to ward off pirates and invading navies…never used by the way. Down below is the powder magazine, next to the officer’s day room and armory. Across the courtyard is the tiny, cramped, dungeon where recalcitrant slaves were punished, along with some small detention cells.

Outside the fort is the old custom house with another building still holding the old scales where cargo was weighed to establish the tax owed.

A couple of hundred yards offshore is a five acre island called Protestant Cay. It looks lovely with many trees, flowers, and a wide sandy beach. There’s also the Hotel on the Cay there, offering some unique and low priced accommodations on their own little island paradise.

I don’t think it’s too accessible, though.

We finish off our first foray into town at the waterfront Fort Christian Brewpub, the Virgin Islands only microbrewery.  We have some calamari and beer when one of the very mean feral cats comes to beg. I say mean because I found out just how feral it was when I reached down to pet him. I’m lucky I still have a hand…

The bartender goes over to the water and throws something in. There is a big splashing commotion so we go over to take a look.

He’s throwing chicken bones into the water, which immediate sends the tarpon into a feeding frenzy. It’s quite a sight to see.

Apparently, it’s a tradition here to order chicken wings at the pub and then throw the leftover bones into the bay where the tarpon will gladly swallow them whole.

With a little island brew, history, and cheap entertainment under our belt, we head back to the hotel.

I meet tonight’s musicians unloading their van in front of our room. Junie is his name, as he introduces himself to me along with his son Rocky and associate Charles.

“I’ve never heard of anyone with the last name of Musick,” he tells me with great amusement. “Come and see the show.”

We do. Junie and Rocky provide a great, steel-drum set of music while we sip on cocktails on the terrace. Junie sees Tim and says “you have a special son.”

Yes, I guess I do.

“I have a special son too,” he tells me as he points to Rocky, who is now across the room surfing the Internet on the hotel's lobby computer. “He has ADHD and was put on all kinds of medicine including Ritalin. I had enough, it was just poisoning his head and it’s easier to deal without it.”

He tells me he’s been playing here at the Buccaneer since he was eight.

“The first night I was here there were battleships, aircraft carriers, and destroyers offshore. The Kennedy brothers and Lyndon Johnson were sitting where you were. It was during the Cuban missile crisis.”

He tells me of his family’s history on the island and the ranch they own.

“I’m cash poor and land rich but I consider myself a very wealthy man. My wealth is over there,” he says, as he points to Rocky. “That’s all the riches I need.”

Junie and the Jungle, as they call themselves, go back onstage for the second set as we finish off our drinks and head back to the suite.

A suitable introduction to our home for the next five days.

Darryl

Copyright 2013 – Darryl Musick

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